According to the information reported by Europa Press, the testimony of a sister of Montserrat Careta revealed that the reconciliation between Careta and Santiago Laiglesia months before the murder of Helena Jubany included as a condition the restriction of visits to the house where the events occurred in order to preserve the privacy of Laiglesia, to whom the set of keys to the apartment was returned. This information placed the level of presence and possible cohabitation of Laiglesia on the property on Calvet d’Estrella Street at the center of the investigation and highlighted a possible connection between the couple and the environment in which the crime for which they are being investigated was committed.
As Europa Press detailed, four people gave statements before the Court of First Instance No. 2 in Sabadell in the context of the case surrounding the death of Helena Jubany. Among them, two witnesses said that Laiglesia usually lived in the house where the victim was found dead. One of these people, a relative of the owner of the apartment, stated that Montserrat Careta itself informed him of the intention to include Laiglesia in the rental agreement for the property, although this change has not yet been finally formalized. This decision was in keeping with the desire to avoid administrative proceedings, even though both Careta and Laiglesia had their names on the farm’s mailbox, a fact that Careta’s sister confirmed in her testimony.
For his part, one of the witnesses who attended the Unió Excursionista de Sabadell (UES) with those involved stated that neither Careta nor Laiglesia took part in an environmental demonstration that took place on the same day as Jubany’s murder. According to Europa Press, this absence was confirmed through contacts with other participants at the event, thus confirming his absence. This statement was previously collected and presented to a notary as part of efforts to reopen the investigation after the initial closure in March 2021.
A fourth witness, now deceased, stated that he observed a constant presence of Laiglesia in the building, which supported the hypothesis of his cohabitation in the house examined. The statements of these four witnesses took place before various organizations: at notarial appearances, before the state police and before the court itself, a total of three times each. The new statements are intended to correct deficiencies in previous versions after the public prosecutor’s office requested a repetition following the resumption of the proceedings in July 2020.
In the same court case, a handwriting test was ordered to be carried out on Santiago Laiglesia. The aim is to determine whether there is a match between his handwriting and the anonymous messages sent before the murder of Helena Jubany, a hypothesis supported by the prosecutor’s office and in which the National Police attributed part of the notes to Xavi Jiménez, another investigator in the case.
In terms of scientific evidence, forensic analysis revealed that the sweater Jubany was wearing when she was found dead contained genetic material compatible with Laiglesia’s profile. Europa Press reported that the defendant’s defense appealed against the order imposing temporary detention on the grounds that the evidence had already been evaluated in the past. The defendant’s legal team pointed to the different results of the various DNA tests and questioned the validity of the latest expert report. In the opinion of the lawyer, this report does not achieve the reliability required for its use as a prosecution element in a criminal case and he recalled the legal obligation to interpret every doubt in favor of the defendant.
Other elements analyzed, such as additional biological traces found on the victim or other clothing, do not match Laiglesia’s profile, which, according to his defense, weakens the thesis that he was directly involved in the rendition or manipulation of Jubany at the time of the crime. In this sense, the presence of DNA on the jersey was attributed to coexistence and frequent contact between known people who participated together in UES activities.
As part of the legal defense strategy, in addition to the request for an independent report on the genetic analyses, documents proving the roots of Laiglesia in Catalonia were also submitted: registration certificate, official status in the Ministry of Education of the Generalitat and the ownership of a family property certified by the relevant certificate. The lawyer denied there was a risk of absconding and referred to his client’s cooperation with the judiciary in all phases of the investigation. Regarding the possibility of destruction of evidence or interference in the social environment of the victim or the UES, the defense explained that all relevant relatives had already appeared before the authorities and that the social structure of Laiglesia had changed since the events.
The court sessions focused on clarifying the weight that must be given to both the witness statements and the material evidence collected, in a procedural scenario that continues to be determined by the reopening of the case and the debate between the parties on the sufficiency of the new evidence presented. Europa Press reported that the prosecution is continuing its search to clarify whether Laiglesia was involved as a resident of the apartment from which the victim was thrown out and whether his proximity to Jubany’s entourage was a result of a prolonged cohabitation, as some of the witnesses cited in the case claimed.
The legal proceedings into the death of Helena Jubany continue as the court analyzes the elements offered in the investigation phase: direct witness statements, calligraphic and biological reports, and documentation on the movements and relationships of the key participants. The findings regarding Santiago Laiglesia’s whereabouts in the victim’s house could have a significant impact on the criminal investigation of the evidence later in the trial before the Sabadell court.
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